An investigation into the effectiveness of using acoustic touch to assist people who are blind.

Wearable smart glasses are an emerging technology gaining popularity in the assistive technologies industry. Smart glasses aids typically leverage computer vision and other sensory information to translate the wearer's surrounding into computer-synthesized speech. In this work, we explored the potential of a new technique known as "acoustic touch" to provide a wearable spatial audio solution for assisting people who are blind in finding objects.

Foot Position Measurement during Assistive Motion for Sit-to-Stand Using a Single Inertial Sensor and Shoe-Type Force Sensors.

Assistive motion for sit-to-stand causes lower back pain (LBP) among caregivers. Considering previous studies that showed that foot position adjustment could reduce lumbar load during assistive motion for sit-to-stand, quantitative monitoring of and instructions on foot position could contribute toward reducing LBP among caregivers. The present study proposes and evaluates a new method for the quantitative measurement of foot position during assistive motion for sit-to-stand using a few wearable sensors that are not limited to the measurement area.

Inertial Sensor-Based Instrumented Cane for Real-Time Walking Cane Kinematics Estimation.

Falls are among the main causes of injuries in elderly individuals. Balance and mobility impairment are major indicators of fall risk in this group. The objective of this research was to develop a fall risk feedback system that operates in real time using an inertial sensor-based instrumented cane.